Putin alleged plot target

Monday

Feb 27, 2012 at 12:01 AMFeb 27, 2012 at 12:30 PM

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian and Ukrainian special services have arrested suspects linked to a Chechen rebel leader for allegedly plotting to assassinate Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, state television reported today, less than a week before elections he is all but certain to win.

Channel One said the suspects, acting on instructions from Chechen warlord Doku Umarov, were preparing to kill Putin in Moscow immediately after Sunday's election.

The station said the suspects were arrested in Ukraine's Black Sea port city of Odessa after an accidental explosion Jan. 4 while they were trying to manufacture explosives at a rented apartment.

The Ukrainian Security Service said on Feb. 7 that it had detained three suspects on terrorist charges in Odessa on Feb. 4, but it said nothing at the time about them being linked to an anti-Putin plot. Its spokeswoman, Marina Ostapenko, said today the announcement in Moscow came only now apparently because the Russian special service was conducting its own investigation.

The station said the source for its information was Russia's Federal Security Service, the main KGB successor agency dealing with domestic security. It was impossible to verify the claim.

Opinion polls show Putin will likely take a first-round victory in the presidential vote despite a series of mass protests in Moscow against his rule that have undermined his image as a powerful and popular leader. He has managed to recoup some of the losses thanks to blanket daily coverage by state-controlled TV stations that cast him as a defender of Russia against foreign plots.

Putin has counted the victory over Chechen rebels as one of the key achievements of his rule, and the report about the alleged plot is likely to further boost support.

Channel One said two of the alleged members of the group arrived in Ukraine from the United Arab Emirates via Turkey with instructions from Umarov, the top military leader for the Chechen rebels. One of them, a Chechen, was killed during the accidental explosion in Odessa, and another one, Kazakhstan citizen Ilya Pyanzin, was wounded in the blast and arrested.

Pyanzin led the investigators to their liaison in Odessa, Adam Osmayev, a Chechen who previously had lived in London, the report said. The TV station showed some footage of Osmayev's arrest in Odessa with black-clad special troops bursting in and half-naked, bloodied Osmayev on his knees, his head bowed down.

Speaking to Channel One from custody in Ukraine, Osmayev described the group's mission: "Our goal was to go to Moscow and try to kill Prime Minister Putin ... Our deadline was after the Russian presidential election."